by Claire McGovern, Strategic Initiatives Manager, Pipeline

We’ve all heard the saying, “Two heads are better than one,” but, it wasn’t until I met Rachael Chong and Jane Slusser, the partnership that heads up Catchafire, that I really believed it. Friends since college, Rachael and Jane combined their passions and skill sets to change the world of volunteering. Rachael Chong, Founder and CEO, is ablaze with energy and drive to innovate the volunteer world. For Rachael, every professional can volunteer their skills and every nonprofit has a real need for skilled volunteers.

Edited by: Ghazel Ghazaleh Abassalian, Pipeline

Catchafire connects nonprofits with professionals who can provide the expertise that they are looking for. In turn, professionals are matched with a nonprofit that needs their specific skills, in turn creating a meaningful volunteer experience. Jane Slusser, Vice President, is the peanut butter to Rachael’s jelly. When Jane joined Catchafire, she had the opportunity to apply lessons learned from her time spent organizing volunteers for the Obama campaign.

I caught up with Rachael and Jane on another hot New York summer day. They had fun with the #womaninnovator interview, bouncing answers off one another and finishing each others’ sentences. They shared the back-story of Catchafire’s launch and what makes them women innovators.

Claire McGovern is Pipeline’s Strategic Initiatives Manager. Her responsibilites include managing Pipeline’s social media presence, content creation, and producing the #womaninnovator series. She also manages Pipeline’s volunteers. Claire’s posts will document her summer at Pipeline and her observations as she navigates through her own personal pipeline.